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Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Yearn, Embrace & Try

I wrote the above tweet on August 16, 2017, inspired by Barbara Gruener, the author of What's Under Your Cape?: Superheroes of the Character Kind. Her blog has amazing education and mindfulness resources, including links to her book. We traded books over the summer and has unofficially mentored me- of which I am very grateful.

The idea of working with “YET” in school is very common today. “I can’t do that kind of math” becomes “I can’t do that kind of math...yet!”, for example. In her blog, Barbara took the word and broke it down into powerful action words: Yearn. Embrace. Try. Those 3 words sparked a quick Twitter-friendly poem from me which I’ve now put into an image for today’s illustration.

I yearn.

I don’t know everything and I don’t know how to do everything. Let’s embrace that. It’s fairly easy to tell someone else that we’re all a work in progress. It becomes a bit harder to admit that we ourselves don’t have all the answers.

I can embrace.

Despite what I lack, I won’t run away and hide. This is another hard one to embrace. It’s so much easier to stick with what we know. Many of us grew up believing we have to be “the best” and to not run the risk of showing weakness by stretching ourselves. We need to be OK with nervous butterflies in our stomachs. The concept of “YET” feeds into that. It reminds us that we have both a right and responsibility to grow. I should embrace learning something new.

I can try.

If I put some effort into it, I may LEARN to be able to do that math. Or get closer to it. I have a duty to at least reach out and try. I should do it proudly, without fear. Why? To show ourselves and others that Fear shouldn’t run the show of our lives. That big mountain of impossibility called Fear can loom up in front of any and all of us, at any given moment. With practice and help from others, we can rise up against it and build something good.

We’re yearning, embracing and trying TOGETHER.

This concept is for us all. Whether it's hobbies, our health, our jobs, even using new technology- we may not be there YET, but we can yearn, embrace and try. Let’s remember that we’re all in YET together. We can move forward in YET, together. We can grow stronger in YET, together. YET covers it all: our minds, our hearts and our bodies. Together.

Where are we on the journey? What kinds of encouragement can we offer ourselves today? I’m thinking YET is a great place to start.